I02 Yew-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



been previously remarked, their temples were 

 always placed in open spaces, and not amongst 

 trees. 



Another reason alleged for their being planted 

 in such localities seems to have been the very 

 strange one of providing shelter for the sacred 

 buildings. Thus in a Statute of Edward i. pro- 

 vision of this kind is made, but the Statute 35 

 Edward i. (a.d. 1307) Mvas merely a repetition of 

 one embodied (a.d, 1215) in Magna Charta,- ' Ne 

 Rector prosternet arbores in Cemeteris : ' * Arbores 

 ipse propter ventorum impetus ne Ecclesiis noceant, 

 sepe plantantur. Prohibemus, ne Ecclesiarum 

 Rectores ipsas presumant prosternere indistincte, 

 nisi cum Cancellus Ecclesiae necessaria indigent 

 refectione. Nee in alios usus aliqualiter conver- 

 tantur.' 



This passage may possibly not have reference to 

 the yew. Otherwise it seems to be an absurd 

 injunction for the protection of the churches. As 

 a writer in the Gentleman s Magazine ^ truly says : 

 ' Scarce any (tree) could be selected which is so ill 

 adapted to be planted for protection, from the slow- 

 ness of its growth and the horizontal direction of 

 its branches, both of which prevent it rising high 

 enough, even in a century, to shelter from storms 

 a building of moderate height' If yew hedges 



1 Secunda pars Veterum Sfa/utoriiin ; Lond. 1556, i2mo, Signat. E. 5. 

 - Brand, Pop. Aiitiq. ^ 1 786, vol. Ivi. p. 941. 



